Active citizenship is a form of civil participation in which direct involvement is emphasized over distanced reflection. As such it seems to be in juxtaposition to the role of the researcher who is typically an external spectator and observes, documents, and analyzes phenomena from outside. This quality of remaining in a state of professional distance and scholarly reflection can pose a dilemma when the multitude of problems in the world is obvious and the need for direct intervention becomes undeniable. Are active citizenship and scientific enquiry opposing modes of participation or can they be complementary? For the duration of 11 months, we pursued a first-person study, seeking to deepen a sense of engagement with the challenges of the time while simultaneously maintaining our role as researchers. We aggregate our findings into four categories—“feelings,” “insights,” “changes in perspective” and the “wrestling to find a balance between inertia and conscience.” The results are contextualized within the broader literature of the self, pointing to facets of identity that encompass both a local and a global form of “active” or “contemporary” citizenship.
CheungC.LeeT.ChanW.LiuS.LeungK. (2004). Developing civic consciousness through social engagement among Hong Kong youths. The Social Science Journal, 41, 651–660.
5.
CreswellJ. W.CreswellJ. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE.
6.
DöringN.BortzJ. (2016). Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation in den Sozial- und Humanwissenschaften. Springer.
7.
DouglassB. G.MoustakasC. (1985). Heuristic inquiry: The internal search to know. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 25(3), 39–55.
8.
EllisC.BochnerA. B. (2000). Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 733–768). SAGE.
9.
FörsterE. (2018). Die 25 Jahre der Philosophie: Eine systematische Rekonstruktion (Klostermann Rotereihe) (The 25 years of Philosophy: A systematic reconstruction (Klostermann Rote Reihe)). Verlag Vittorio Klostermann.
10.
GiorgiA. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Duquesne University Press.
11.
HardenbergF. (1968). Die Lehrlinge zu Sais. In StaigerE. (Ed.), Novalis: Gedicht, Romane (pp. 7–154). Manesse Bibliothek der Weltliteratur. (Original work published 1802)
12.
HusserlE. (1995). Cartesianische Meditationen. Einleitung in die Phänomenologie (Cartesian Meditations. Introduction into phenomenology). Meiner.
13.
Kabat-ZinnJ. (2005). Coming to our senses: Healing the world and ourselves through mindfulness. Hyperion.
14.
KieneH. (2001). Komplementäre Methodenlehre der klinischen Forschung (Complementary methodology in clinical research). Springer Verlag, Freiburg.
15.
KopninaH.SaariM.-H. (2019). If a tree falls: Business students learning active citizenship from environmentalists. Euciations Sciences, 9, Article 284.
16.
LupinacciJ.Happel-ParkinsA. (2016). (Un)Learning anthropocentrism: An ecojustice framework for teaching to resist human-supremacy in schools. In RiceS.RudA. G. (Eds.), The educational significance of human and nonhuman animal interactions: Blurring the species lines (pp. 13–30). Palgrave MacMillan.
17.
MaslowA. (1954). Motivation and personality. Harper & Brothers.
18.
MattijssenT. J.BuijsA. A.ElandsB. H.ArtsB. J.van DamR. I.DondersJ. L. (2019). The transformative potential of active citizenship: Understanding changes in local governance practices. Sustainability, 11, 5781
19.
Merleau-PontyM. (1958). Phenomenology of perception. Routledge.
20.
MeyG.MruckK. (2009). Methodologie und Methodik der Grounded Theory. In KempfW.KieferM. (Eds.), Forschungsmethoden der Psychologie. Zwischen naturwissenschaftlichem Experiment und sozialwissenschaftlicher Hermeneutik. Band 3 (Research methods in psychology. Between experiment-based science and humanistic hermeneutics) (pp. 100–152). Regener.
21.
MillerR. (1991). Educating the true self: Spiritual roots of the holistic worldview. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 31, 53–67.
22.
MoustakasC. E. (1990). Heuristic research, Design, methodology and applications. SAGE.
23.
PaytonJ. (2016). Recontextualizing military sexual assault: A feminist human science and social ecological approach. In FischerC. T.LaubscherL.BrookeR. (Eds.), A Qualitative vision for psychology: An invitation to the human science approach (pp. 196–220). Duquesne University Press.
24.
PetitmenginC. (2006). Describing one’s subjective experience in the second person: An interview method for the science of consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 5, 229–269.
25.
ReasonP.BradburyH. (2008). The SAGE handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice (2nd ed.). SAGE.
26.
RobbinsB. D. (2016). The heart of humanistic psychology: Human dignity disclosed through a hermeneutic of love. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 56, 223–237.
27.
SchererK.MoorsA. (2019). The emotion process: Event appraisal and component differentiation. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 719–745.
28.
SenecalC.KoestnerR.VallerandR. J. (1995). Self-regulation and academic procrastination. Journal of Social Psychology, 135, 607–619.
29.
SmithJ. A.ShinebourneP. (2012). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In CooperH.CamicP. M.LongD. L.PanterA. T.RindskopfD.SherK. J. (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2. Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological. American Psychological Association.
30.
SteenekampC.LoubserR. (2016). Active citizenship: A comparative study of selected young and established democracies. Politikon, 43, 117–134.
31.
SteinerR. (2005). Fachwissenschaften und Anthroposophie (Scientific disciplines and Anthroposophy) (Vortrag vom 12). Rudolf Steiner Verlag. (Original work published 1921)
32.
VarelaF. J. (1996). Neurophenomenology: A methodological remedy for the hard problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3(4), 330–349.
33.
WegerU. W.EdelhaeuserF. (2014). The role of the brain during conscious experience: In search of a new metaphor. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 21, 111–129.
34.
WegerU.W.HerbigK. (2019). The self as activity. Review of General Psychology, 23, 251–262.
35.
WegerU.W.HerbigK. (2021). The self in the periphery. Review of General Psychology, 25, 73–84.
36.
WegerU. W.MeyerA.WagemannJ. (2016). Enquiring into the behavioral, experiential and conceptual dimensions of the self: Introducing a new phenomenological approach. European Psychologist, 21, 180–194.
37.
WegerU. W.WagemannJ. (2015a). The behavioral, experiential and conceptual dimensions of psychological phenomena: Body, soul, and spirit. New Ideas in Psychology, 39, 23–33.
38.
WegerU. W.WagemannJ. (2015b). The challenges and opportunities of first person inquiry in experimental psychology. New Ideas in Psychology, 36, 38–49.
39.
WhyteW. F.GreenwoodD.LazesP. (1989). Participatory action research: Through practice to sciencein social research. American Behavioral Scientist, 32(5), 513–551.
40.
ZajoncA. (2008). Meditation as contemplative inquiry. Lindisfarne Books.
41.
ZieglerR.WegerU. W. (2018). First person experiments in thinking. Europ. Psychologist, 23, 189–205.
